Sunday, June 2, 2013

Turkey: Istanbul - Taksim Square - the breadth of social support in the urban enclave of Istanbul - is bigger than Greece and closer to Egypt. "Everyone is here - except the AK Party" - says one young woman




Democracy and Class Struggle says this report from Paul Mason of BBC makes some interesting comparisons.

Democracy and Class says it is right to rebel against reactionaries.

"I have have covered Syntagma in Athens, the Occupy protests and reported from Tahrir Square in Cairo. This is different to all of them. First, it is massive: the sheer numbers dwarf any single episode of civil unrest in Greece.

Second, the breadth of social support - within the urban enclave of Istanbul - is bigger than Greece and closer to Egypt. "Everyone is here - except the AK Party" - says one young woman. People nod. In Greece, the urban middle class was split; here the secular middle class is out in force, united across political divisions, to say nothing of football hatreds.

Is this the Turkish Tahrir? Not unless the workers join in: Turkey has a large labour movement, and a big urban poor, working population, and Monday is a work day, so we will see. It is certainly already something more than the Turkish version of Occupy"

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